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| There was standing room only at UW-Whitewater, where there were 17,535 in attendance. Photo by Pat Coleman, D3sports.com |
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| Bradley Mitchell dives for the pylon for one of his two touchdowns. Photo by Dan Poel, d3photography.com |
UW-Whitewater won a nail-biter in the closing minute, while St. Thomas won in the closing seconds and Mount Union pulled away in Saturday's Week 6 Top 25 action.
- Week 6 scoreboard
- Top 25 roundup
- Week 6 national roundup
- Highest recorded D-III attendance
- Even more game stories
Drew Patterson scored on a 16-yard touchdown run with 55 seconds left to lift No. 2 UW-Whitewater over No. 5 UW-Oshkosh 17-14 in a defensive battle in front of 17,535, the largest recorded crowd in Division III football history.
Patterson took the ball and appeared to be stopped, but bounced off a tackler and kept his feet moving to the end zone.
"On the field, I was thinking (it would get) about 7 yards or something like that. ... We didn't foresee that we would get that big of a chunk off it it," said Warhawks coach Kevin Bullis.
Fourth-ranked St. Thomas might have been left for dead when Concordia-Moorhead scored on an 89-yard hook-and-ladder play with 29 seconds left. But the Cobbers were called for a personal foul on their failed two-point conversion, committed pass interference on the first UST play from scrimmage, dropped a sure interception with eight seconds left and Alex Fenske hit Nick Waldvogel, who made a diving catch in the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown with two seconds left to give the Tommies a 23-20 win.
Bradley Mitchell had two of Mount Union's six rushing touchdowns and the No. 1 Purple Raiders broke open a close game with a big second half, going on to defeat Heidelberg 50-14. The Student Princes cut the deficit to 21-14 with 3:01 left in the first half, but did not score again as the Purple Raiders rolled. The Purple Raiders now have the longest active winning streak in Division III football, following Amherst's loss to Middlebury.
After a puzzling loss to rival Montclair State, Rowan has come back and won two consecutive games against ranked opponents. On Saturday, it was No. 13 Salisbury who fell victim, as the Profs stopped the Sea Gulls on their final three possessions for a 34-30 win. Rowan took the final lead with 12:24 to play after Dante Pinckney found wide receiver Zac Frantz from 13 yards out for a touchdown. Will Flake ended the Sea Gulls' next possession by stripping Malique Pratt of the ball at the 1-yard line and the Profs stopped Salisbury on fourth down twice, the last time with 1:04 left.
Eddie Trimpert threw two touchdown passes and ran for the game-winning score with only 20 seconds remaining to lead RPI to a 21-17 victory over No. 22 Hobart. The Statesmen, who took a 17-14 lead with just 1:12 left in the contest, fell 5-1 while RPI improved to 4-2.
Without Jackson Erdmann for a second consecutive week, St. John's rolled to a 49-0 win at Augsburg. Ben Alvord was 12-for-15 passing for 190 yards and seven Johnnies running backs got between 20 and 55 yards rushing. Nathan Brinker led the defensive with three sacks and a forced fumble.
Luke Landis caught two touchdown passes, while Luke Bowling caught a touchdown and threw a TD in No. 18 Wittenberg's 21-10 win vs. DePauw. The loss was DePauw's first of the season, while Wittenberg improved to 5-0.
No. 3 Mary-Hardin Baylor wasted little time jumping on top of winless Howard Payne and had little trouble putting the Yellow Jackets away. The Crusaders forced a fumble on Howard Payne's first offensive play and Blake Johnson followed with an eight-yard pass to T. J. Josey. The Crusaders rolled the rest of the way to a 59-10 victory.
North Park got off to a better start, recovering the opening kickoff against No. 6 North Central (Ill.). But the Vikings' fortune didn't last as Cardinals quarterback Broc Rutter went 30-for-36 for 358 yards and five touchdowns in North Central's 35-14 win. Brenan Kuntz also threw five touchdowns for No. 15 Thomas More and the Saints trounced Grove City, 70-20.
Blowout wins were the order of the day for most of the Top 25. East Texas Baptist put up 706 yards of offense, with 464 of them on the arm of quarterback Dru Smith, and the Tigers blasted McMurry 67-31. No. 21 St. Lawrence scored 20 points on special teams and cruised past Rochester 48-13.